Blogging

It's a golden age for writers, this digital era, and blogging is one of the best examples of it. I resisted blogging for quite a while because I write for a living and I couldn't see the point of writing for free for an audience that may never materialize. I just didn't get it.

But finally the light went on. I realized that although I love writing I don't often get to write about what I'm most passionate about. I'm a business and economics journalist and I love the storytelling involved in writing journalism, but finance is not a passion for me. So I started a book blog, Cogito Ergo Sum, and then a food blog, You Are What You Eat. Books and food are two things I am passionate about. I didn't much care if anyone followed or read these blogs. They really were for me weblogs, journals for my own amusement that allowed me to express things about books I read and food I liked.

When I decided, crazily, to accompany my brother on Biking Across Kansas, I started another blog, BAKpedal, to chronicle my training for this 500-mile bike ride across the state, and then for BAK itself.

When I finally decided to take the plunge and self-publish my historical thriller, The Grand Mirage, which had been languishing on publisher slush piles for too long, I knew I needed to accompany it with a blog/website. Blogger has enough flexibility that you can create a blog that looks a lot like a website, buy a custom domain name, and be in business for just $10. So I launched Barnaby Woods Books, a website for the self-publishing imprint I created.

Publishing my book liberated me from the blocks that had kept me from writing and made me enthusiastic about churning out some more fiction. Because I wanted to keep Barnaby Woods Books focused on The Grand Mirage and other books that will come along, I started this blog, Barnaby Woods Blog, to write about writing.

Then I thought there should be a blog for The Grand Mirage itself, but what can you blog about a novel that takes place in 1910? Well, aside from just the pure entertainment value, one of the reasons you read an historical novel is to get a perspective on the past that helps you understand the present. I think this particular era and the setting for my novel actually does have a lot to say about the present, so I'm experimenting with blog postings that fit the description, "The Middle East Then and Now." I think in fact it could become a fairly robust blog.

Too many blogs? Maybe. But why not try it? That's one of the beauties of blogging, too.